Raiders DE Carl Nassib Announces He's Gay; Donating $100K to The Trevor Project

Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib announced in an Instagram video Monday that he is gay.

"I just want to take a quick moment to say that I'm gay. I've been meaning to do this for a while now. But I finally feel comfortable enough to get it off my chest. I really have the best life. I got the best family, friends and job a guy could ask for. I'm a pretty private person, so I hope you guys know that I'm really not doing this for attention. I just think that representation and visibility are so important. I actually hope that one day videos like this and the whole coming-out process are just not necessary. But until then, I'mma do my best and do my part to cultivate a culture that's accepting, that's compassionate, and I'm gonna start by donating $100,000 to The Trevor Project."

He is the first active NFL player to come out as gay, per ESPN's Adam Schefter.

The Trevor Project provides "crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) young people under 25," per the organization's website.

Nassib received an outpouring of support after his announcement:

Michael Sam came out publicly in 2014 after his college football career and before he was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in the seventh round, making him the first out player to be drafted by an NFL team. While he played for the Rams that preseason and later had a stint on the Dallas Cowboys practice squad, he never played a regular-season game before retiring in 2015.

He also played for the Montreal Alouettes in 2015 and became the first out player in the Canadian Football League and the first out player to appear in a CFL regular-season contest.

Nassib, 28, has played for the Cleveland Browns (2016-17), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2018-19) and Raiders (2020) in his five-year career, posting 20.5 sacks. He was a third-round pick of the Browns in the 2016 draft.